week 9

This video from Youtube shows a group of square dancers.. They are dancing to one of my favorite holiday songs. Square dancing has been a hobby for my husband and I for almost 30 years. I also checked out some other square dance videos as well as knitting and quilting ones. My son and his wife are currently on a bicycle trip through Tuscany. They have a digital camera which makes videos with them, so I am going to ask them to upload some video of their trip after they get home to North Carolina for us to watch on our computer here in Baltimore. Or, they might be able to email it as them can photos. Neat!

I was somewhat familiar with audiobooks because I get questions about it at the Information Desk. When I took another look I discovered that there are now some videos which can be downloaded. I also read more about burning some books to CD. This is something I might do.

Looking more closely at things other than books available from Project Gutenberg I discovered music scores ready to download. And -- the top ebook downloaded in the last 30 days was Eve's Diary by Mark Twain. I had numerous requests for it this summer, as it was on school summer reading lists!

Podcasting has some possibilities for making library programs available to users from home. It can also be useful to businesses. Employees who do not go to a conference, for example, can hear the speakers via downloaded podcasts. You can listen to your favorite radio shows via podcasts at a time convenient for you. I don't think I personally will make much use of this technology, but I see its possibilities.

In reflecting on the material I was exposed to through the 23 things exercises, I see that Web 2.0 has many wonderful possibilities for both business and personal use. I am probably the oldest person in BCPL doing the program, and so have grown up using much different methods of obtaining and using information. On the other hand, coming from a pre-television, pre-computer background I may appreciate the possibilities of the Internet more than people who have grown up taking it for granted.

I love what the computer age has made possible for our library system. I remember the card catalog, the book catalog, the microfiche catalog. I remember keeping paper files of community organizations and reader's advisory information. I couldn't wait until we could get inventory and circulation statistics. Now we are doing more for patrons by making it possible to access many of our resources from home. I want to stay around long enough to see what comes next!

Personally I intend to work more with some of the things we explored and use them for projects I want to accomplish on my home computer. Doing these 23 things has taken some of the mystery out of them. Thanks!